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Tuesday, September 15, 2015

Musings - Salty Pancakes

When I was a preteen I loved to cook on my own. It was almost a right of passage learning my way in the kitchen. My mom, gracious as she was, allowed me to endeavor into this world with a little trepidation. My first true baking venture without parent supervision resulted in hairy cookies. My neighbor and friend, Kate, helped me with those. I also clearly remember chunky jello where I thought adding the cold water first was a great idea, because who really needs to follow the directions anyway? Then there were various concoctions constructed by Cathy and I during our days-long sleepovers. We made cakes and shakes and who knows what else. I think her older brothers thought we were nuts. My younger years were definitely filled with experimentation in the kitchen and I think it served me well.

Needless to say that though I learned from my kitchen ventures, a there were a few bumps along the road. One such bump resulted in salty pancakes.

I was with my friend, Tara, and we had been playing outside for a good part of the day. Supper time was nearing and for some reason that I cannot remember, my mom was not home. I had to be about 12 or so. Heidi was down the street with her friend and Tara and I decided that we should make pancakes. We were going to be making them for several people so we decided to double the batch.

At this time in my life, my math skills were a bit weak. And adding fractions, that thing you thought you'd never really need to know how to do, well your math teacher wasn't lying when she said you would need math in the real world. Adding fractions is a real thing.

But I digress….
Tara and I got out all of the ingredients and began to put the recipe together. As we were adding things, it seemed easy enough to figure things out. When we got to doubling the salt for some reason we were both a bit lost. Three fourths teaspoon plus three fourths teaspoon. A tough one, right? Tara and I did the simple equation and were pleased with our math skills. We then added the salt to the bowl. Everything looked great so we cooked the pancakes. They looked and smelled delicious.

Then…..

We tasted them. Ugh! They were disgusting. Lord only knows how much salt we actually added. It's funny how something that looks and smells so good can possibly taste so bad. Hmmm, sounds like some sort of hidden life lesson I think.

Not wanting to throw them away, we packed them up and took them down the street to my sister's friend's house where she had been playing. Everyone who tried them had the same reaction. Inedible! No amount of sticky sweet syrup could save our salty concoction. In an effort to conserve some of our efforts we tried to feed the pancakes to our friend's dog. The dog sniffed, looked and walked away, leaving the pancake sitting on the floor. We all roared with laughter that even the dog would not eat them.

Later when I told my mom of the incident and had to explain why we had to throw out so many pancakes, she told me to just omit the salt if there was ever any confusion. A little salt makes things taste better but too much ruins a recipe.

Click here for the recipe for the pancakes, which are incidentally, quite delicious. Just be sure to check your math if you double or triple!